Bring your own wine — one small sip for B.C.

West’s Owen Knowlton says he hasn’t had a BYOB patron yet.

Photograph by: Vancouver Sun
, Files

I expected Owen Knowlton to act like a man under attack. Consider this: he’s the wine and restaurant director at the upscale West restaurant. Last week, the B.C. government gave the go-ahead for wine corkage in restaurants. And, at higher-end restaurants like West, it’s wine, not the food, that brings in the big money.

“Typically, in restaurants, the going rate is about five per cent profit on food,” says Knowlton.

West, and its sister restaurants, CinCin Ristorante, Blue Water Cafe, and Araxi (Whistler) opted to go with the bring-your-own-bottle option with a $38 corkage fee. (Wines are generally sold at about twice the retail price in restaurants; at West they’re priced on a sliding scale with less mark-up on pricier wines.)

One week after the rule change — no bites. “Not one person,” says Knowlton. “There’s not a big interest and that’s what I’ve been hearing from others. It’s a bit of an inconvenience to go to the liquor store and bring it in a brown bag. It takes the romance out of dinner.”

A big part of the wining and dining experience, he says, is the pairing. “The wines in our cellar are based on the chef’s food. We’ve concentrated on a lot of refreshing, less oaked whites, Pinot noirs — wines that complement our food. A lot of wines are delicious but heavy and cloying, so we really specialize in sourcing wines that work well with the food. They’re a lot more lighter in tannins with bright acidity. We’re not a French restaurant or steak house. Our food is medium bodied.”

Given that there hasn’t been a stampede of wine-bearing patrons, Knowlton is happy with the liquor law change. “It’s a step in the right direction. It’s kind of a sign that the government is more open and willing to change. It’s a first step of many necessary changes.”

He would like to see B.C. on a par with other provinces where there is a wholesale price on wine for restaurants. “We pay shelf price like our guests,” he says.

Food and wine lover Rasoul Salehi has taken his own wine to two restaurants — L’Abattoir and Market at Jean-Georges. He expected a little attitude from staff but he says that hasn’t been the case at all. Salehi, general manager for at Le Vieux Pin and LaStella wineries in the Okanagan, says friends in industry all had great experiences. “Us wine guys have cellars with over a thousand bottles. We like the opportunity to share wines with other people, to try something new, something old and it wouldn’t be realistic to expect restaurants to have some of the rare or old wines we might have.”

At Market, he says, he found the policy is to waive the corkage fee if patrons also order a bottle from the wine list.

Like Knowlton, Salehi believes the white tablecloth restaurants will not be hurt by the change. “They have a culture of their own — it’s the experience. The only times people will want to bring their own wine is for sentimental, celebratory reasons. Instead of celebrating at home, perhaps they’ll now go out. I for one, don’t see a reason for taking wine to restaurants like Hawksworth where there’s an amazing wine list with breadth, depth and there’s expertise and you’re paying for that service.”

At L’Abattoir, he thought the $25 corkage fee was very fair. “You can’t blame the players [restaurants] for a seemingly high corkage fee,” he says. “The fact they can’t buy at wholesale prices is unheard of. How can you expect restaurants that buy hundreds of cases of wine to pay the same as an individual who buys one bottle?”

Wine sommelier Stephen Bonner, the business developer for Biercraft restaurants, started a website compiling restaurant corkage fees after the changes were announced. He gathered information from 36 Vancouver-area restaurants. Most, he says, are charging $20 to $25. His website, www.bccorkagefees.blogspot.ca, also offers BYOB etiquette tips, for example, phone ahead to see what the policy is and take a bottle that’s not on the restaurant wine list.

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